Frequently Asked Questions

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is an advanced business improvement methodology that uses a disciplined project management approach (DMAIC) and statistical analysis to reduce defects or variation.

The objective of Six Sigma is to reduce variation of a process to allow only 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

Six Sigma was developed by an engineering team at Motorola in 1986/7 in pursuit of winning the Malcolm Baldridge Quality award. The approach was designed as an effort to squeeze out the last bit of variation in a perfectly stable and well performing process.

The Six Sigma method is referred to as DMAIC which is an acronym for 5 stages of the process improvement method: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control.

After Motorola achieved success with Six Sigma by winning the Malcolm Baldridge Quality award in 1987, other firms started to take notice. The initial companies were Allied Signal and then GE which adopted Six Sigma in 1995/6 and rolled it out as the Quality program to deliver breakthrough results. After GE achieved phenomenal success and reported saving billions of dollars in its annual report, Six Sigma was adopted by hundreds of companies to help them improve business performance.

What is DMAIC?

DMAIC is an acronym for the five phases that a Six Sigma project progresses through, namely Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control.

How many Six Sigma courses are there?

Six Sigma training is traditionally run in 4 formats, namely:

• Black Belt: An in depth study of the DMAIC principles trained over 3, 1 week sessions. The intention is to equip full time business improvement resources with a comprehensive toolkit to run advanced Six Sigma projects.
• Green Belt: A lighter version of the DMAIC principles trained over 2, 1 week sessions. The intention is to develop part time resources with good understanding of Six Sigma to support and assist Black Belts to run projects.
• Yellow Belt: Aimed at the shop floor, the yellow belt is trained within 1 week. The intention of which is to provide fundamental problem solving skills, that will be applied in conjunction with larger scale projects to measure, identify and resolve everyday issues.
• White Belt: The white belt is typically a 1 day overview of six sigma, intended to provide senior executives with an understanding of Six Sigma and their role to support Projects and Black Belts within the business.

What is a Master Black Belt?

A Master Black Belt is the term given to a Black Belt who has obtained a broad spectrum of business improvement experience and qualifications. Although Master Black Belt certification requirements can differ between certification institutes, the common requirements are as follows:

• The completion of all of the following Business Improvement qualifications, Design For Six Sigma (DFSS), Lean, Change Management and Train The Trainer.
• The completion of numerous successful Black Belt projects over period of years.

What is the difference between Black Belt and Green Belt?

Essentially the fundamental difference between Black Belt and Green Belt is the amount of detail covered in training and the intended application at a project level. The Black Belt course is an in depth study of all aspects of the DMAIC methodology, covering advanced statistical tools, with the aim to equip full time resources with all the necessary skills to lead complicated Six Sigma projects. Green Belt on the other hand, still cover the core principles of the DMAIC methodology however in less detail than the Black Belt. In application Green Belts are expected to either run smaller scale projects in a part time capacity, and to assist Black Belts with components of their larger scale projects.

Do I have to do Green Belt before Black Belt

No, unlike the martial arts hierarchy that Six Sigma borrows its ranking from, a participant does not need to complete the lower qualifications in order to move up to Black Belt status. The primary determining factor of which level course to study goes back to the intended application of each participant. With that being said a participant can elect to study at any level (Black, Green, Yellow Belt).

Where did Six Sigma come from?

Six Sigma was developed by an engineering team at Motorola in 1986/7 in pursuit of winning the Malcolm Baldridge Quality award. The approach was designed as an effort to squeeze out the last bit of variation in a perfectly stable and well performing process.

After Motorola achieved success with Six Sigma by winning the Malcolm Baldridge Quality award in 1987, other firms started to take notice. The initial companies were Allied Signal and then GE which adopted Six Sigma in 1995/6 and rolled it out as the Quality program to deliver breakthrough results. After GE achieved phenomenal success and reported saving billions of dollars in its annual report, Six Sigma was adopted by hundreds of companies to help them improve business performance.

What is Lean?

Lean is a Business Management System derived from the Toyota Management Principles and Production Methods.

The narrow view of Lean is as a set of tools used for cost cutting and process improvement. The broader view is that Lean is a business management system, a way of thinking. The Lean philosophy is to see the entire enterprise as a system with the objective of driving out waste that leads to costs and delays in meeting customer’s needs.

The fundamental approach to implementing Lean in an organization was laid out in a book written by Jim Womack and Dan Jones called Lean Thinking. Lean Thinking defines the approach to creating a Lean organization as: Define Customer Value, Identify the Value Stream, Make it Flow, Create Pull, Strive for Excellence.

Lean employs the use of value-add/non-value add process analysis to identify and eliminate waste from the value creation process. Lean is widely accepted as an approach to drive quality, reduce lead-times and increase flow in a process.

What is FOCUS?

FOCUS is an acronym for the five phases that a Lean project progresses through, namely Focus, Operate, Create, Utilize and Sustain.

Where did Lean come from?

Lean is a Business Management System derived from the Toyota Management Principles and Production Methods.

The narrow view of Lean is as a set of tools used for cost cutting and process improvement. The broader view is that Lean is a business management system, a way of thinking. The Lean philosophy is to see the entire enterprise as a system with the objective of driving out waste that leads to costs and delays in meeting customer’s needs.

The fundamental approach to implementing Lean in an organization was laid out in a book written by Jim Womack and Dan Jones called Lean Thinking. Lean Thinking defines the approach to creating a Lean organization as: Define Customer Value, Identify the Value Stream, Make it Flow, Create Pull, Strive for Excellence.

Lean employs the use of value-add/non-value add process analysis to identify and eliminate waste from the value creation process. Lean is widely accepted as an approach to drive quality, reduce lead-times and increase flow in a process.

Lean is a manufacturing methodology, will it work in a transactional environment?

Lean certainly has its origins in the manufacturing world, however the principals of lean are universally applicable to any company and environment. Lean is first and foremost a philosophy, with the lean way of thinking transcending any industry. Many highly successful lean projects have been conducted in transactional environments, optimizing paperwork flow, speeding up payments cycles and removing wasted activities from daily operation.

What is Lean Six Sigma?

Lean Six Sigma is a buzz-word used to include the positive business improvement power of both Lean and Six Sigma in a business transformation effort. Technically speaking Lean Six Sigma is purely a blending of the two process improvement techniques of both Lean and Six Sigma. However, with only a few exceptions, most practioners simply add some Lean tools to the DMAIC method and call it Lean Six Sigma. 

The reason the two go together so well is because Lean is used to solve problems related to Flow and Lead-time reduction. Six Sigma is used when one desires a reduction in variation that is leading to an unacceptable amount of defects.

The irony is that sometime defects are caused by sources related to long-lead times and sometimes long-lead times are caused by defects. Thus, Lean and Six Sigma have found themselves lumped together and even merged into something called Lean Six Sigma. But in reality, when one takes into consideration the broader view, they are two distinctly different approaches and one must understand them both in order to choose the approach to suit the purpose.

The objective of both Lean and Six Sigma is Zero Quality Defects.

Many companies have achieved a high return on investment with both Lean and Six Sigma. Companies who successfully deploy a Lean and or Six Sigma approach to business improvement can expect +/- 2% in operation efficiency savings per year.